(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to shelving and garment hanger rods of the kind used in household closets and the like and particularly to a small gauge wire or rod shelf and hanger rod connected together by support brackets. Specifically, this invention relates to such a combination that allows uninterrupted sliding of garment hangers along the hanger rod.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Garment hangers typically have hooks by which the hangers are hung on a rod while supporting garments. It is commonly recognized that, for convenience, garment supporting hangers should be freely slidable on the hanger rod on which the hangers are hung and the closet rod should resist sagging when fully loaded. This free and uninterrupted slidability is desirable because, as hangers are added to and removed from a hanger rod, and to view the garments in a closet, the hangers must be slid along the hanger rod.
For many decades a typical residential clothes closet has been equipped with a wooden shelf installed above a wood or pipe hanger rod. Free slidability of garment hangers has been accomplished by making the wood and pipe rods of large enough diameter (usually greater than one inch) that they can be supported only at their ends without intermediate supports. For an exceptionally long large closet rod, minimal interruption of the coat hangers is afforded by only occasional, distantly spaced brackets for supporting such a large diameter hanger rod. However, these larger hanger rods have the disadvantage of being independent of a closet shelf and being relatively expensive. The rods of wood tend to sag, increasingly over a period of time, and the rods of pipe are heavy and more difficult to install.
In more recent years wire shelving has become popular for residential use, often selected in place of wood. A typical wire shelf consists of spaced longitudinal rods extending left to right and smaller diameter wires extending transversely over the longitudinal rods, front to rear, and welded to the rods. For either a twelve inch or a sixteen inch deep shelf, there may be a pair of vertically spaced front rods and a rear rod, with one or more intermediate rods between the front and rear. Typically, the wires are spaced on about one inch centers extending over the tops of the rods front to rear. On some shelves the wires are turned down at their fronts to provide front flanges welded to the vertically spaced front rods. The rods have been about 3/16 to 5/16 inch in diameter and the wires about 3/32 to 1/8 inch in diameter. A popular shelf has had rods of slightly less than 1/4 inch diameter and wires of a little less than 1/8 inch diameter.
An inexpensive and convenient-to-install integral shelf and hanger rod formed of metal wires and rods welded together is also commercially available. These integral shelf and hanger rod units typically are packaged with installation hardware and sold through retail outlets. Both builders and do-it-yourself consumers can readily install these integral shelf and hanger rod units, usually in residential closets. In these integral shelf and hanger rod units there are longitudinal wires or rods each of about 3/16 to 5/16 inch diameter extending along the front and rear of the shelf. Smaller gauge transverse wires or rods of about 3/32 to 1/8 inch diameter are closely spaced in parallel, front to rear orientation and are welded to the larger longitudinal rods. A hanger rod is connected to the shelf by a plurality of vertical support rods. However, because the hanger rod, like the longitudinal shelf rods, is of about 3/16 to 5/16 inch diameter, the support rods must be spaced within a maximum of about one foot of each other to avoid sagging. With an adequate number of vertical support rods, typically at about one foot intervals, welded to the shelf and to the hanger rod, many garment supporting hangers can be hung from the hanger rod with minimum sagging. However, slidability of the garment hangers is obstructed by the vertical support rods and limited to about one foot spans. These obstructions to slidability created by the plurality of support rods have made use of the integral shelf and hanger rods highly inconvenient. Since a typical closet is about two feet deep, it is desirable that a hanger rod be about one foot from the rear of the closet, placing the rod about midway between the front and rear walls of the closet. Accordingly, the conventional integral shelf and hanger rod is about twelve inches deep.
In the residential market, a shelf and hanger rod that has been improved must be accompanied by low cost, ease of handling, and convenience of installation. Such a residential shelf and hanger rod cannot approach the cost of typical commercial or industrial apparatus because consumers will not buy it. The residential shelf and hanger rod must be light weight so it can be handled comfortably by an individual consumer. It must not be bulky. It must be adaptable for packaging for sale in consumer-targeted retail outlets. Its design must be adaptable to installation by one person with simple hardware using basic household tools.
Since the hanging garments may be quite heavy, the shelf, hanger rod, and the rods that connect the hanger rod to the shelf must cooperate in such a way that they will not sag under heavy loading. Yet they must meet the foregoing requirements for residential application and, pursuant to the present invention, the support rods must not obstruct the slidability of garment hangers on the rod. Accordingly, this invention provides an integral shelf and hanger rod that meets the requirements for application to the residential market while providing unobstructed slidability of coat hangers on the hanger rod.